I've only seen the UK version, and it goes in cycles of good-awful-good-awful. Being character-driven, when the characters get too quirky, it gets too silly. The more recent ones have been quite good, but quite a lot of them have been unwatchable shiitake. The Christmas special with the stolen meat is still one of my favourite Christmas specials ever.

Dynahmite wrote:

I think that watching the family protect and enable the father's drinking is only going to go so far. Someone in the family is going to have to draw the line or the viewers are going to become so frustrated they'll stop watching.

It's been on for ten seasons here, so...

His alcoholism and the family dynamics are addressed at various points, but I think that's part of the point of it all; sometimes alcoholism goes unchecked and people still have happyish family lives. It would be too jarring if he suddenly cleaned himself up

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I only watched a few of the UK version, but I don't think the two Franks are really the same. US Frank's treatment of his children can sometimes be too much to watch. I know sometimes it's supposed to be funny, but it doesn't get there always. It's just sad.

I only watched a few of the UK version, but I don't think the two Franks are really the same. US Frank's treatment of his children can sometimes be too much to watch. I know sometimes it's supposed to be funny, but it doesn't get there always. It's just sad.

This. I know he's suppose to be unlikable in a kind of funny way, but lately they've been making him go too far, where it just seems really sad and cruel.

It is awesome! I love the sexuality part of the show, I think it makes the whole thing more real. I just realized how bad Detroit really is watching that show. Anyway, I love the cast and the storyline, it's going to continue to be great..... I hope. :)

I just took season 1 out from the library and settled in to watch last night. I got as far as the intro, the part where the "animal lover" son is holding a cat and stopped right there. Is there animal abuse in the storyline?